Becoming Dom
by SunSpell80
Summary: Because everything was always about Victoire and it was time for Dominique to have her turn. CMverse. "In Other Words" #1


This is part of my Checkmate Universe, which for now just consists of my ongoing story Pawn. I plan on releasing these little one-shots as they come to me, but separately instead of in one story, so that people who want to read stories about certain characters can.

Disclaimer: I only own the two roommates mentioned very briefly. All the rest belong to Jo Rowling.

* * *

Becoming Dom

* * *

Dominique winced as the bristly brush caught in her hair and pulled against her scalp. "Mama, it hurts!"

Gentle lips touched her crown soothingly. "Just a little more, it'll be over soon." Her mama promised, caressing her already brushed hair with the hand that wasn't tackling Dominique's unruly knots. "This is what happens when you roll in the mud like a _galopin_."

"But I wasn't! I was playing in the field." Her bottom lip quivered.

Her mama gave another tug. "It is the same result. If you had stayed inside when it rained like I told you, this would not be happening." She tugged again and Dominique cried out.

"Oh, it can't hurt that badly." Victoire huffed from the kitchen table where she was trying to work on her summer-essay.

"I bet you cried!"

"Mama never had to brush out my tangles." Victoire's voice was smug. "She only ever used the soft-brush on me."

"This is true." Their mama agreed, patting the top of Dominique's head as she worked on a particularly tough section. "Her hair did not tangle so easily as yours, but she also never went out in the rain."

Dominique wanted to stick her tongue out at Victoire, but that would have earned her a slap on the head from her mama. So she just folded her arms crossly.

* * *

The Burrow was filled with laughter and life. Dominique's mama and papa were talking about adult things with Grandad Weasley. Grandma Weasley had about twenty different recipes stirring themselves and was trying to stave off Aunt Audrey from attempting to help – everyone knew Aunt Audrey was a terrible cook, but no one would say it to her face. Uncle Percy and Aunt Hermione were enchanting garlands to drape themselves over what seemed to be every surface, while little Lucy and Louis followed them around with an armfuls of greenery nearly as big as herself. Lily and Hugo were playing a raucous game of Exploding Snap in the middle of the living room floor. Victoire and Teddy were sitting on the couch, chatting and laughing. The majority of the family had decided that last night's blizzard wasn't going to deter them from proceeding with the massive free-for-all Quidditch game they had planned so the adults had swathed their children in coats and scarves before trooping outside. From the kitchen window it appeared that the adults and older children were doing most of the playing, while the younger children just zoomed around aimlessly.

Dominique, who was sitting at the kitchen table with Molly, her most boring cousin, wished fervently she were out there with them. But her mama had put her foot down, saying she was not wearing enough and would freeze to death. Besides, she wasn't a very good flier. She'd only flown a few times and when she'd asked for a broom for Christmas, her parents had said no: they lived in the middle of the suburbs, a broom would be utterly impractical. Victoire had chimed that she would get a chance to learn once they had lessons at school, and that would teach her all she ever needed to really know. After all, it wasn't as if she was going to join the House Team.

Most of her other cousins owned brooms and had been flying since they were toddlers. She wasn't going to make a big fuss about going outside to fly only to fall off in front of all her experienced cousins.

So she staying inside, and watched as her cousin Rose barreled head-first into a snow pile, laughing as she pulled herself out, cheeks red and snow caked in her wild hair.

* * *

It was the Sunday before the start of Dominique's first year and her mama had prepared a celebration. It was just a small gathering, the five of them and Teddy, who had been spending an increasing amount of time at their home, for some reason.

Her mama set down chicken proudly, as if she had raised it from an egg, butchered it and cleaned it herself, rather than purchasing it from the market. "_Bon appetit_!"

After she sat down, her papa raised a glass of wine. Teddy and her mama raised theirs, while Victoire, Dominique and Louis raised their glasses of water. Victoire had tried to wheedle their mama into letting her have wine, but had been firmly shut down. "To Dominique, who will be heading off to Hogwarts for the first time this week!" He announced. Dominique felt a warm bubble of happiness as everyone else echoed 'To Dominique!" This was her moment, the one she'd been waiting for her entire life.

"And to Victoire too, of course, who will be beginning her last year," Her papa added.

"Yeah, now the hard-work really begins." Teddy teased her. "NEWT year! And you won't have me around to make sure you study, like with the OWLs."

"Oh you'll be receiving a barrage of actual owls in May." Victoire replied, picking at her chicken delicately. "Good luck getting any work done."

"You plan on keeping me from my work? That's an obstruction of the law!"

"Don't worry, you can always owl me for advice, Victoire." Dominique's papa interjected. "Teddy hasn't completely replaced me yet."

"Papa!" Victoire blushed, while Teddy choked on his wine.

Dominique silently moved her food around on her plate, suddenly not hungry.

* * *

Her roommates were gleefully unpacking and speculating about their classes. There were three of them and they all seemed spunky, confident and boisterous. In other words, they were the perfect Gryffindors. Dominique just lay in her bed, her trunk already carefully packed away, peering at them through the bed-curtains as she pretended to be asleep.

"So what's this Quidditch thing everyone keeps talking about?" Asked a dark-haired girl, who said her name was Sara. She was clearly a Muggleborn.

"Oh, it's the _best sport,_" Gushed Rose, bouncing on her own bed with excitement. "You fly around on brooms trying to get the ball through three hoops. Or, the Chasers do. There's three Chasers. The Keeper tries to stop them from scoring by guarding the hoops. But there's also Beaters, who have bats which they use to direct these balls called Bludgers, which fly around on their own-"

"They what?" Sara exclaimed, her eyes bulging.

"Yeah, they fly around and Beaters knock them into players to try to knock them off their brooms."

"That sounds so dangerous!"

"Oh it is." The third girl shook her head. "I've only played a few times with my brothers, but they play a lot and I can't tell you the number of times my mum's had to fix their broken bones."

Rose pulled up her shirt, apparently showing the other two girls something on her stomach. "This is from playing Quidditch. My cousin Fred hit me with a Bludger and tried to knock me off, but I held on to my broom anyway and blocked their next shot. I'm a Keeper," She added proudly, "And I'm going to try out for the House Team as soon as I can. "

"So there's Chasers and Keepers and Beaters. What do you score with, do you have to grab one of the Bludgers?" Sara asked, trying to wrap her head around the rules.

"No, you score with a Quaffle." Corrected Rose. Dominique shifted to get a better view of her. She had pulled her shirt back down and was eagerly leaning forward as she explained the rules. Despite being the same age, they had never been close: Rose and Al had always been best friends, for as long as Dominique could remember. But Al had been sorted into Slytherin earlier that day…

Dominique rolled over and closed her eyes.

* * *

It happened during the first month of her second year. She was headed to Transfiguration by herself, like she always did when she bumped into an older student, some boy from Ravenclaw.

"Oh sorry." He backed up and looked at her. "Oh, hey Little Vic."

He started to walk away and Dominique called out, confused. "I'm sorry, what?"

The boy turned back. "Huh?"

"What did you call me?"

"Oh." He looked sheepish. "That's your nickname. You're Victoire's little sister, right?"

Dominique didn't respond, she just stared at him until he walked away uncomfortably. Then she was left standing there in the empty corridor while his words echoed around her. _Little Vic. Little Vic. Little Vic. _

Screw _that._

With a little cry of frustration, Dominique ran in the direction opposite of her Potions classroom until she got to her Dormitory. She flung her schoolbag onto the ground, not caring that everything came tumbling out and her ink-bottle smashed, ruining her homework.

_Little Vic. Like Victoire-Junior. Victoir's Cheap Copy. _

This was supposed to stop. Victoire was gone, graduated, this was supposed to be time for Dominique to find herself without her older sister's shadow following her everywhere. To find out who she was without Victoire. To not be _Little Vic_.

She threw herself onto her bed and cried furiously, not caring that it was unladylike. _Screw _being ladylike. _Screw _being like Victoire. _Screw _being like her mama. She would never be them, never be as pretty or as perfect. They had flawless complexions and she had freckles. They were tall and willowy, and she was short. They had smooth hair you could just run your fingers through, while hers was…

Dominique ran her fingers through her hair and gave a scream when they stopped at a tangle. That was _it. _She was sick of putting mountains of product in her hair, trying to make it like Victoire's when it was never going to be as pretty.

Making up her mind, Dominique rifled through her carefully organized drawers until she came upon a pair of scissors. She gathered her hair together and brought the scissors up to just a little below her ears, ready to cut.

"What are you doing?"

The voice made her jump and nearly slice her own ear off. Dominique looked up to see Rose standing in the doorway, looking wary. "Why are you here?" She croaked out, hating that it was obvious she'd been crying.

"You skipped class, you never skip class. I was worried." Rose crossed the circular room and sat down on the bed next to Dominique.

Dominique wiped her eyes. "You skipped class too."

Rose snorted. "Yeah, but it's not like I've got a perfect attendance record. I skived off at least five times last year, saying I had the 'flu.'" She made air quotations marks around the word. "But you, you're always so well behaved, you must hate skipping class-"

"No I don't!" Burst out Dominique. "I don't hate it or even feel bad about it at all. This is the first thing I've done in my whole life where I haven't tried to be like Victoire, where I haven't tried to be perfect. I don't want to be perfect – I never will be. I don't get perfect grades, I don't like doing lady-like things, I'm not perfectly behaved, I don't have perfect hair…" She trailed off and saw Rose's eyes drift to the scissors.

"Oh." Rose let out a sigh. "Well, who says you have to be like Victoire anyway? I mean, I like her well enough but sometimes I swear she has a stick up her arse." Dominique laughed quietly and Rose seemed to take this as a good sign for she continued. "This is _Hogwarts_. You can be whoever you want to be here. You don't have to be a miniature Victoire, any more than I have to dedicate my whole life to studying. Our parents aren't here, Dom."

"Dom?" Dominique echoed, tilting her head curiously.

Rose shrugged. "I don't know, it just slipped out. I don't have to call you that if you don't want me to."

_Dom. _She tried it out in her head. It was completely boyish and unladylike. Her mama would _hate _it. "No, I love it. It's much better than _Little Vic _anyway."

"See?" Rose slapped her hands against her thighs. "You can start creating a new persona right now, and you don't even have to chop off all your hair."

Dominique clutched the scissors still. "No." She said stubbornly. "I still want to cut my hair."

Rose pried the scissors out of her hand. "That's fine, but let's let someone who won't totally butcher it take care of it. I heard Veronica Chase is excellent at haircuts, let's see if we can talk her into it tonight, okay?" Dominique nodded and smiled at her. "Good, now since we're already skiving, we should head down to the kitchens and steal some sweets." She pushed herself off the bed, flounced over to the door, and then turned back. "Are you coming?"

Dominique set the scissors back on her dresser.

"Yeah." Dom replied. "I am."

* * *

A/N: There you have it. Just a few moments leading up to Dominique's transformation. The moments weren't very dramatic because that's how most things are when we're kids: just little subtle things that dig away at us until we explode and make everything seem much more dramatic than it really is.

Dom will be appearing in Pawn (my Auror!Rose story) quite a bit so check it out if you're interested in seeing Dom older (in all her tomboy glory!). She hasn't made an appearance yet, but she will in the next chapter.


End file.
